one flew over the cuckoos nest

Thomas EvansOne Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest12-6-96General
PsychologyDr. Sabin In the movie, One Flew Over the
Cuckoo's nest, there was a character named McMurphy, played by Jack
Nickolson, who was admitted into a mental institution for medical testing
after having been convicted of statutory rape. It was obvious that he was
only faking and he thought that he could get off from having to serve his
sentence in a work camp. He pretty much saw everything and everyone
as a joke but the only person who he didn't fool was nurse Ratchet. He
thought that he would be able to leave in a couple of months, the time of
his sentence in the work camp, until he found out that he wouldn't be
allowed to leave. After a few days he began to see the patients as a
group that needed more enjoyment in their lives and he wanted to try to
find some way that they could get out and go to a bar and watch the
world series. The nursing staff seemed uncaring to their lack of
enjoyment to life and basically refused to allow the patients to even watch
the game on the TV during their chores even after having took a vote
where a mute patient nicknamed 'Chief' for the first time communicated
that he wanted to watch the game. McMurphy had befriended Chief and
later discovered that he was not deaf and dumb but was only faking his
muteness and they planed to escape together. McMurphy later
found out that many of these patients were here only because they put
themselves here and didn't want to leave even though they had the option
to. He tried his best to bring some life to these patients such as teaching
them to play poker and gambling for cigarettes. He even went so far as
to escape over a fence only to open the gate and to get the patients onto
a nearby bus and drive them to the docks where he took them on a
fishing trip. Also he arranged for his girlfriend and a prostitute to come to
the institution at night with some alcohol and had a little party for them
before he decided he was going to escape. The next morning one of the
patients who was suicidal was found by the nurses in bed with the
prostitute. Nurse Ratchet told him that he would tell his mother what he

had done and the patient was found later dead on the floor from having
had slashed his own throat. McMurphy never did leave and he was
given a form of therapy called ECT, electro-convulsive therapy, and after
many sessions this left him in a near-comatose state. One night, Chief
had killed McMurphy out of pity for him as he thought it was undignified
that they had taken nearly all of his humanity and the movie ended with
Chief escaping after it had been said that it couldn't be done.
Electro-convulsive therapy is a technique used to treat disorders such as
major depression and schizophrenia. Patients usually receive one
treatment about three time a week for usually ten sessions. Electrodes
are attached to the temples and a strong electrical shock is given, enough
that convulsions are produced. This application of current induces
unconsciousness so it becomes nearly impossible for the patients to
recall the treatment. The patients are given a sedative beforehand and
are also given muscle-relaxants because the shock produces such strong
convulsions that the patients would otherwise flail about wildly sometimes
breaking bones. With these muscle-relaxants the convulsions are barely
noticeable to any onlookers. Also this form of therapy is not given to
patients that have heart-problems or high blood pressure. ECT has
been under much controversy for many reasons. Many professionals
dislike the idea of passing electric current through the head that produces
convulsions, even if they are given sedatives before hand. There is also
the side effects. There is disruption in the recall of recent events and
some patients suffer this lapse of memory on a permanent basis. No one
seems to know how ECT works and for reasons stated above, it was
outlawed in California but later overturned by the courts.